B. What were your actual results?

While I have a ways to go with my music theory education, I am being given the opportunity to compose things in order to hammer in concepts which will probably increase as the course progresses. Out of the concepts listed in the first two questions, I am now comfortable with scales (including minor keys) and intervals as a direct result of Music Theory. 

In terms of my class performance, I have been having to rely a lot more on external motivation that I had hoped, but I think that's a result of my previous understanding of basic concepts which were review for me. Technology has proven a trouble for me. While I always get my work done, technology has been very distracting for me if I get bored and start working on something else I have to do. This, along with my procrastination habits (which surprisingly haven't been very present in this course in particular), are areas I need to improve on. 

C. What caused your results?

In terms of the concepts I wanted to learn and what I ended up learning, those are a result of the curriculum. However, my personal results were because of my previous bad habits which have bled into this course. I think another factor is because I have this class C Block and by that time I have already gone through all of my hard classes and am intellectually tired. Because of this, and the units which were review, I haven't been as focused and present as I had wanted to be. 

D. What do you want the same next time?

I want to continue to hand my assignments in on time and keep my Jimdo organized. I have been happy with all of my composition exercises so far so I want to keep going with that and eventually get more advanced. I want to keep giving myself little breaks in order not to burn out but I need to try to make sure those breaks don't exceed 2 minutes because then I'm not being productive. 

E. What do you want differently?

I want to start taking more notes and making micro-plans. I want to stop relying on external motivation as much and try to enrich my own learning when I feel bored or unmotivated. I want to try to be more focused and try not to let the end of the day drag me down. I want to start doing more work at home in this regard, as well as practice concepts instead of blindly taking tests. I want to take sometime every class to get off of my technology and work on concepts in an alternative way. 

Step 3

Review your Music Literacy Benchmark Assessment located in 

Unit 1

A.  Comment on your achievements thus far (1,3,5) relating to your literacy confidence for each concept

I would say for all of the concepts that I gave myself a 5 in I now have a deeper understanding in, such as scales, key signatures, and chords. The only 3 I gave myself was for intervals was intervals, the reasoning being I didn't understand "P" and "M." Now i understand that "P" means perfect and "M" means major. The only skill/concept I think might have gotten worse was the ear training because determining intervals by listening to them is still something I find difficulty in. 

B.  Are you making good progress toward your goal?

If my goal is to be able to grade myself all 5s for all concepts, I think my biggest obstacle is ear training. It is a part of music theory and playing music in general that I am not used to and have not mastered. For most concepts I understand them on paper and can do exercises about them either in Alfreds or tests but applying them aurally is a needed area of improvement. 

C.  Describe the resources/tools that are most helpful to your understanding of this subject

While it sometimes can be a nuisance, Alfred has been very helpful in offering me practice for concepts that I don't understand right away. Additionally, videos are useful in providing visual and aural help for concepts as opposed to reading a chunk of text. 

D.  What might interfere with your progress and how can you prevent this interference?

As I have mentioned before, technology is a big obstacle. Because this class isn't necessarily a priority for me, I have not invested time in studying, practice, or planning ahead of time, which I will try to start doing before the course is over. 

Step 5

Briefly review the assignments you have submitted for Units 1-5

A.  Comment on the quality of work reflected in your ePortfolio relating to areas of strengths as well as areas of needed improvement

I am pleased with the organization of my Jimdo. I like to make two columns so that everything is easier to see and in its place. For the first half of the semester I haven't been taking notes and instead pasting images coming from the internet. That is a pro because it makes the site look more professional but it's a con because I'm not retaining the information as well. 

B.  Will you continue to sculpt the work reflected in your ePortfolio as you did for the first half of the course or do you plan on making changes for the second part of the semester?

Sometime before the end of the course I want to personalize my site a little more and maybe add a homepage. It looks nice but it's not finished yet. As the course progresses and gets harder, I want to start taking notes on paper. 

Step 6

Please help us sculpt the next phase of the course by providing feedback, suggestions, etc. related to Unit Content, Alfred, Wix, On-Campus, ePortfolio, Work Flow, etc. 

Because this is in the front of my mind, a lot of questions in this midterm reflection seem redundant. I have already talked about my dislike for Jimdo, as I am starting to suspect it deletes parts of sentences and mine has been entirely in German since the beginning. This probably works for most people, but for me it's hard to really visualize all I have to do reading from Freebern Music. I think that might just be a me thing because I don't usually like working with technology. I wish less of the course was online but that is just my preference. Maybe more worksheets could be offered.